Free Web Novel“Wasn’t your brother right?”
Chuckling, he drew his sword. Startled, I darted my eyes around, then hurriedly slipped a hand into my sleeve too.
The bandit with the thickest belly among the men who had surrounded us shouted in a booming voice.
“Hand over everything you’ve got and we’ll spare your lives!”
It should have been a shocking situation, but for some reason all the tension went out of me. Maybe it was because the line was so honest it sounded like he was reading straight out of a textbook.
Yeon Ryang seemed to be thinking the same thing. He swept his gaze over the bandits and asked,
“Hey, brothers of the greenwood. Which one of you is the chief?”
At his question, a bandit draped in a tiger hide stepped forward. A spiked iron mace rested slanted across his shoulder.
“I am the great Chief Gobul of Red Tiger Stockade.”
“Dogbul?”
“Gobul! You idiot, Gobul!”
Dogbul—no, Gobul—shouted, his beard trembling.
“Right. Brother Gobul. Pleased to meet you. My sister’s still young, so I’d rather avoid letting her see blood. Any chance you’d be willing to let us pass nicely?”
“I already told you. Hand over everything you’ve got and we’ll spare your lives.”
“Hmm. So that means no?”
“Khuhuhu. Ask a question worth asking. You’re a slow one, aren’t you?”
Gobul let out a wet, phlegmy sound and spat, grinning ominously. At the same time, the bandits’ encirclement tightened.
“Boys.”
SHING! CLANG!
The clash of metal rang out with a chill.
Even under the bandits’ threats, Yeon Ryang didn’t lose his ease. If anything, he lightly adjusted his grip on his sword and even whistled.
That utterly carefree attitude made me relax too.
He acted like an unemployed uncle who spent all day loafing around at home, but I could trust at least one thing about Yeon Ryang: the way he used a blade.
The bandits didn’t look particularly strong, either.
Unlike the wandering martial artists, whose mere eye contact had made the hairs all over my body stand on end, being surrounded by fifteen or so of these men didn’t make me feel much of anything.
While I stood there blankly, one bandit wearing a bear hide charged straight at me.
“Let’s see how relaxed you stay when your sister gets taken! Yahhh!”
“Jesus—what the hell? You scared me.”
I reflexively fired a Feather-Needle and stumbled backward. The bandit, now with a poisoned needle stuck in his forehead, cried out as if he’d been wronged.
“Urk, cowardly! You hid a concealed weapon...!”
“What are you talking about? Hidden weapons are supposed to be hidden.”
Who was he calling cowardly? He was a bandit.
I shot back while rummaging through my sleeve, but in that instant another bandit leaped in front of me and swung a broad saber.
“Sister!”
“Ah!”
A lock of hair brushed by the blade fluttered down in a shower. Startled too, Cane hurriedly burrowed into my clothes.
If Yeon Ryang hadn’t grabbed the back of my neck and yanked me away, I would have been cut clean through.
Eyes wide, I clung to him and pressed a hand to my racing chest.
At that exact moment, a sword blade suddenly thrust in from the side.
Reflexively, I wrapped internal energy around my hand and caught the blade. The metal I grabbed snapped neatly in half.
Huh. Why did that break?
When I looked back and forth between the broken blade and the bandit, he threw away the hilt that was all he had left and staggered backward.
“Hiiik, a m-monster...! Barehanded... she broke a sword with her bare hand...!”
“Where do you think you’re going? If you frightened my sister, you ought to pay the price.”
Laughing, Yeon Ryang knocked the bandit flat, then pointed at me.
“Our little sister’s absurdly strong, isn’t she? Looks like I don’t have to worry after all.”
“...”
At this point, wasn’t it less that I was strong and more that his sword was shoddy? It had snapped like a wooden chopstick.
With a dubious expression, I tossed away the piece of metal I was still holding. The bandits’ faces turned deathly pale.
“S-sir, they’re masters. What do we do?”
“Urgh... We surrender. Drop your weapons!”
At Gobul’s declaration, the other bandits glanced around, then threw down their weapons and gave up. Sheathing his sword, Yeon Ryang clicked his tongue at them.
“I told you to let us pass nicely.”
“We’re sorry, sir. We were too foolish...”
“Forget it. You’re annoying. Move aside and let us through.”
“Yes, sir! Thank you! Safe travels!”
“Safe travels!”
Gobul, now so tense his body looked stiff, bent at the waist in a perfect right angle. The others followed suit, bowing and backing away.
“Let’s go, Sister.”
As the road opened before us like the Red Sea parting, Yeon Ryang crooked a finger at me and started striding ahead. I followed after him and cautiously spoke up.
“Um. Brother.”
“Yeah?”
“Can we take their money?”
“...What?”
Yeon Ryang frowned and asked again, as if he thought he’d misheard me.
I looked him straight in the eye and repeated myself.
“No, I mean it. If it’s money they collected by emptying travelers’ pockets, then isn’t it basically ownerless dirty money? Why shouldn’t we take some of it? We’re nearly out of travel funds.”
“...Pfft.”
At my words, the corners of Yeon Ryang’s mouth twitched. Then he pressed a hand to his forehead and burst out laughing.
“Hahaha! Sister, don’t go around telling people you’re from the orthodox faction. What kind of thing is a young lady from a great clan saying?”
He was laughing so hard he had to wipe tears from his eyes, apparently finding what I’d said utterly hilarious.
The orthodox faction was the orthodox faction, and money was money. You needed money to eat. Even ghosts looked better if they died on a full stomach.
After laughing for a long while and finally calming down, Yeon Ryang slowly turned back around. Gobul, whose eyes met his, darted his gaze back and forth.
Apparently he had sensed that something had gone very wrong.
“My sister says so, brother.” fгeewebnovёl.com
“Y-yes, sir.”
“You got anything on you?”
“...Pardon?”
With his scabbard slung over one shoulder, Yeon Ryang grinned like a delinquent.
The scar cutting °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° across the corner of his eye twisted into something vicious.
*****
“This is it? You really don’t have anything else?”
“S-sir... that truly is everything. Sob... Business has been terrible for us lately.”
Gobul, kneeling on the ground, answered in a shrinking voice.
Looking down at the crown of his head, I folded my arms and said,
“I don’t believe you.”
“Please believe me, sir. That really is all—”
“Do you want to swallow a poison pellet before you cough it up, or do you want to cough it up now?”
“...I’ll give it to you.”
At my threat, Gobul made a tearful face and signaled to one of his men.
The smallest bandit there immediately ran off and came back carrying a small jar he’d taken from somewhere.
The jar was full of silver coins.
As the corners of my mouth crept up, Yeon Ryang shook his head as if I were hopeless.
“I had no idea you had such talent for intimidation. Is it a family trait?”
“What a hurtful thing to say. Could you please not lump me in with those poison-crazed lunatics?”
Keeping a straight face, I stuffed the silver coins into my pouch.
They really were insane. There wasn’t a single normal person among them.
Anyway, thanks to the brothers of the greenwood, it looked like I’d be able to travel for the next few months without worrying about money.
After I tucked the newly weighty pouch into my clothes, Yeon Ryang waved at the kneeling bandits.
“You can get up once we’re gone. Thanks for the spending money. We’ll put it to good use.”
“Khk... Safe travels, sir...”
“Safe travels...!”
A few of the bandits Yeon Ryang had smacked around with his scabbard looked like they were crying, but I felt not the slightest bit of sympathy.
If you pointed blades at other people and threatened them, you ought to know the same thing could happen to you.
I snorted and started walking again.
Maybe he’d had fun robbing the bandits, because Yeon Ryang kept grinning.
“Wow. Our little sister’s got guts. How do you even think of robbing a bandit den? You really startled me.”
“I didn’t rob a bandit den. They offered it up on their own.”
“How is that offering it up on their own? You threatened them with a poison pellet.”
“That wasn’t a poison pellet. It was just a wad of bitter herbs.”
“...Sister. Are you really from the orthodox faction? You’re not the daughter of some swindler?”
Clicking his tongue, Yeon Ryang looked at me. I just shrugged. freёwebnoѵel.com
“Go try saying that in front of the Tang estate gates. I’m curious how long it would take before a throwing knife ended up in your scalp, Brother.”
“Whew, scary. Very scary. They say never make an enemy of anyone in green, dead or alive. Guess there’s a reason for that.”
Pretending to shiver despite looking completely unafraid, Yeon Ryang kept smirking at me. Walking backward as he met my eyes, he asked,
“Sister. There’s something I’m curious about.”
“What is it?”
“What’s your name?”
“Oh.”
Come to think of it, we’d never introduced ourselves.
Since I was a fugitive, there was no reason it would do me any good to tell him my real name.
After hesitating for a moment, I borrowed Gyeonga’s name instead.
“...Gyeonga.”
“Gyeonga. I see. Gyeonga.”
Yeon Ryang rolled the name around in his mouth a few times, then casually began calling me by it as if he’d already grown used to it.
“Gyeonga, your brother’s hungry.”
“Oh. Right.”
“We’ve already crossed a mountain, so how about we stop over there and have a bowl of noodles with a nice spicy broth?”
“Bear with it.”
At my blunt reply, Yeon Ryang scooped up Cane and pretended to wipe at the corners of his eyes with its fluffy tail.
“Look at your master, fuzzball. She won’t even feed her brother. Says a brother who doesn’t earn his keep isn’t a brother at all.”
What was he even talking about? It hadn’t even been fifteen minutes since he’d last eaten.
He’d stuffed himself with snacks before we crossed the mountain, and on top of that we’d just eaten at the inn, yet here he was acting like he hadn’t so much as had a bowl of gruel. The sight was unbelievable.
I snorted at Yeon Ryang, who had planted himself in front of a noodle stand.
He winked at me and pointed at the noodles.
...I’d jokingly called him an unemployed uncle a few times, and now he really was acting like some jobless relative pestering his niece to buy him a snack.
Swallowing a laugh, I waved a hand to show I understood.
He was so shamelessly smooth that even when he was being obnoxious, there was something hard to dislike about him.
“Fine. We’ll stop for one bowl.”
“Sounds good. You’re not eating, Gyeonga?”
“I’m fine.”
“Understood. Innkeeper! One bowl of noodles here!”
Yeon Ryang shouted with gusto. The moment the food came out, he lifted the bowl itself and poured it down in one swallow. He was basically a human vacuum cleaner.
I shook my head and paid for the noodles.
Anyone watching would think he had parasites in his stomach or something...
...Ah. He did.
The moment I remembered that Yeon Ryang had the Blood Yin Parasite inside him, I clapped a hand over my mouth.
Come to think of it, he had that thing, didn’t he? I hadn’t seen him take the antidote. Was he all right? Where did he even get it from?
He was supposed to take the antidote to the Blood Yin Parasite every three months.
If he missed the timing, even once...
“What are you so deeply lost in thought about?”
Before I knew it, Yeon Ryang had come close and bent down, bringing his face nearer as if asking what was wrong.
His complexion looked healthy. There wasn’t a trace of pain on his face. Relieved, I awkwardly lifted the corners of my mouth.
“It’s nothing. Let’s go.”
Yeon Ryang wasn’t an idiot. He’d go get his antidote on time, obviously. Probably.
